1NDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
November, 1926
An appendix gives a few tests on high-alumina cements. In view of the recent appearance of this material on the American market and the lack of extensive and authoritative tests on the properties of concrete made from it, this section will be of peculiar interest t o American readers. The author shows that cured specimens made with high-alumina cement and with Portland cement, respectively, have about the same permeability, but that in the case of air-cured specimens the high-alumina cement gives the more waterproof concrete. The pamphlet closes with a short bibliography of the more important papers on waterproofing concrete, and frequent reference is made throughout the pamphlet to the work of others. RICHARD K. MEADE Carbonisation of Coal in Continuo& Vertical Retorts. Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Fuel Research, Technical Paper 15. iv 45 pages. His Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, 1926. Price, 1 s. 3 d. net. This department a t His Majesty’s Fuel Research Station, East Greenwich, is making an extensive study of vertical retort operation, and this report is a brief number of a series. It describes an investigation carried out on a Durham gas coal in four Glover-West vertical retorts. The object was to ascertain the possibility of producing from “Holmside” coal in continuous vertical retorts, a gas of 560 B. t. u. per cubic foot and a coke of not more than 3 per cent volatile matter. To secure data comparable with previously reported steaming tests, the investigation was concluded by carbonizing the coal in varying percentages of steam. To secure gas of this high thermal content, it was found necessary to alter the position of the steam inlet in order to condense part of the steam used for cooling the coke. A lowered top temperature and an increasing temperature gradient from top tb bottom were found desirable. Preliminarv observations also emphasized the importance of scurf in raising the volatile content of the coke, and careful poking was developed to overcome this.
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To increase further the thermal value of the gas, it was necessary to install a long baffle plate between the coal inlet and the gas offtake. The data so obtained are summarized in comparison with the operating results of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, using the same coal in inclined retorts. A brief no-steam run and steam runs using previously developed standard conditions gave results which were normal for a medium gas coal, save for a low tar yield. The report concludes with a summary, and sixteen tables giving analyses of coal, gas, coke, tar, and liquor, together with weight and thermal balances and other test data. WILBERTJ. HUFF Chemical Synonyms and Trade Names. BYWILLIAM GARDNER. 3rd edition. ix f 355 pages. 16 X 25 cm. Crosby, Lockwood, & Son, London, 1926. Price, 30 s. net. The appearance of a third edition two years after the first was presented to the chemical profession is sufficient indication of the usefulness of such a book, and the satisfactory way in which it meets all requirements. The first edition was reviewed in THIS JOURNAL in July, 1924 (16, 763); the second edition was described in December, 1925 (17, 1297). The new edition contains about twenty thousand definitions and cross references-some six thousand more than were contained in the first. The high character of the book has been sustained. The errors noted in the first edition have been corrected, and the book now is the most authoritative of its kind. A few minor errors only were noted: there is an error in the formula of butyroin on page 66; the botanical name of jequirity should be Abrus precatorius; the specific name of kola nuts should be acuminata, page 190; and the generic name for sassy bark, page 293, should be Erythrophleum. There is,,an objection to defining oil of cinnamon as “cinnamic aldehyde, and to noticing oil of cassia only under “oil of Chinese cinnamon.” The new edition should prove even more serviceable than its predecessors, which is the highest praise that can be given it. JAMES F. COUCH
Charles W. Eliot RESIDENT EMERITUS CHARLES W. ELIOT, who died August 22,1926, will always be included among the world’s foremost educators. This classification, however, does not modify the fact that he began his career as a chemist. He specialized in chemistry while a student in Harvard College, and as both student and instructor he was intimately associated with Josiah P. Cooke, who was the first professor of chemistry in the college department of Harvard University. Dr. Eliot’s work in chemistry was done between 1850 and 1870 approximately. After his graduation from Harvard College in 1853, he continued to study chemistry and also served as an assistant. In 1856 he received his A. M. degree and began responsible work as a teacher. He continued to teach chemistry until 1869. Dr. Eliot taught in four schools-Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, the Lawrence Scientific School, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In three of these he emphasized individual laboratory work and constantly insisted on accurate observations, adequate records, and logical conclusions, These fundamental requisites seemed inherent because he himself practiced them throughout his long career. The work in the Medical School was somewhat distasteful, though even there he succeeded in arousing the students’ interest in “doing” rather than merely “hearing.” While teaching in the Lawrence Scientific School Dr. Eliot and his brother-in-law, Frank H. Storer, conducted several investigations and published their results in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. These papers are models, not only in rigorous adherence to scientific procedure b u t in language and style, foreshadowing the superb English which characterizes Dr. Eliot’s writings. Although Dr. Eliot was a pioneer in the founding of the chemistry department in Harvard College, his most important chemical work was done in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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He was a member of the first formal faculty and had the title
of Professor of Analytical Chemistry and Metallurgy.
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gether with Professor Storer he started the work in chemistry in a small, poorly equipped room in the second story of a building which also housed a mercantile library and a commercial school. These two men were “hewers of wood and drawers of water” for four years (1865-69). Besides teaching most of the day, they equipped a laboratory, wrote books, planned a new building (Rogers Hall), and shared administrative work with their colleagues. Eliot and Storer wrote two books, one in general chemistry and one in qualitative analysis. Both books met a definite need, ran through several editions, and were used many years. They were written a t a time when individual laboratory work was beginning to be incorporated-somewhat reluctantlyin chemistry courses. Doubtless these books, or a t least their underlying purpose, laid the foundation of chemistry courses in many institutions. The good done by these books, especially the one in general chemistry, was an unfailing source of gratification to Dr. Eliot during his entire life. In 1869 Dr. Eliot resigned from the Institute of Technology to become President of Harvard University, and ceased his active work as a chemist. Nevertheless, throughout his long career as an educator, he emphasized by tongue and pen the enduring value of chemistry in education. Moreover, he repeatedly stressed the necessity of continuous research in chemistry, particularly in large cognate fields, such as biology and engineering. Dr. Eliot’s acknowledgment of his personal debt to chemistry was summarized in his own words, written about two years ago, when he said: “I recognize the fact that my early study and teaching of chemistry b a s a determining factor in my educational career.” LYMAN C. NEWELL
